Open is the buzz

In the last couple of days I came across some really nice developments that are worth getting some more publicity.
The first one the UK's Open University that has launched OpenLearn, their effort to offer free, high-quality online content. This all seems to be handled by the Moodle platform.
As far as I can see, most of the content here is rather boring. I have tried a few 'courses' and they all are mostly just page-turners. A little disappointing. But hey, they also have the OpenLearn LabSpace where the new stuff should be going on. And: their graphical design is quite attractive!
The second pointer that I would like to give in this post, is a sort-of the same. But still different. This is called Education Commons, which originates from UBC (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada). Their website says the following: "Education Commons is a virtual community of academic systems users, designers and systems implementers sharing knowledge, experiences and best practices. The goal of the community is to create an open and transparent system of communication between diverse groups committed to advancing the state of education worldwide." So this is about sharing also, but in a little bit different way.
Not to confuse you any further, eduCommons is something completely different.
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